The beginning
by Not Just a Nerd
Summary: They'd be fine, as long as they had each other, but that time seemed to be becoming short. The hourglass was ticking. Their world was falling apart. Their doom was beginning.JALEX. Chapter-fic. Set after 'wizards vs. werewolves'. Rated: T for now.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: don't own it. You should know that by now :P

*****

Beginning: the event consisting of the start of something

First: Preceding others in time or space or degree

*****

For history, it is very important to remember when things began (or so he is told). But when it comes to his own life, he finds it very difficult to pinpoint **the beginning of these sickening thoughts** (but who said his life would be easy?). That doesn't mean he would stop his research on that (even though he knew he might never succeed). He would say that he had felt this way since eternity, but that would sound too sappy and sugar-coated (but then again Alex sometimes does call him a 'mushy freak from a boring soap opera' ).

****

**The first time he felt sick was on his 16th birthday,** and he had to puke his stomach's contents (but then Alex did trick him to eat something horrible).

He tells himself it had nothing to do with the fact that Alex was looking so beautiful, gorgeous and…. attractive (but then he sees the birthday picture frame by his bedside, and he's not so sure anymore).

He totally blames Alex for this though (because she is his annoying little sister after all, he grew up blaming her). She was the one who dragged him into the dance floor in the first place (to embarrass him to the people for his dancing skills, or perhaps, lack of that). But then the song changed into a slow romantic song (and he should have known it was a malfunction of Max's magic). He had expected her to break away from him (but hoped she wouldn't anyway). And then it hit him- _he_ wanted to dance with her (not that it meant something, brothers dance with their sisters, right?)

To his surprise, Alex didn't break away and continued to slow dance (and for a moment he was sure that Alex could read minds). They danced together perfectly, completely in sync, and their parents 'aww'-ed at how adorable their kids were (and that's when **guilt hit him for the first time in his life).**

The song ended, he broke away. And his next stop was the toilet sink.

And when he returned, Alex had a satisfied grin in her face (and he inferred it was because she thought it was the food).

*****

He tried ignoring the thoughts and feelings, but thanks to Alex again, it didn't work.

It was a family movie night, and somehow (and he's guessing it was magic) Alex had managed to convince her parents to hire a horror movie. Max was sent to bed before the movie began, and their parents left half-way, but Alex dared Justin to watch it till the end (and as usual, none wanted to lose).

It was going fine, unless some hand came out of nowhere and grabbed the actress. Alex screamed and buried her face in his chest, and for the first time in his life, his breath hitched (but it could be the scary movie, right?)

"Alex, maybe we should stop watching this."

Alex shook her head. (Talk about stubborn!)

"Alex, we don't have to do this. Lets call it a draw okay?"

Alex nodded and pulled away. She gave him a grateful smile. "Thanks Justin, good night."

And he thought that was the end. But then there was a knock in his door at midnight. (He should have known).

He groaned into his pillow, sighed and got up.

"Yes, Alex?"

"I- I can't sleep." Alex murmured sleepily. She looked like a little girl (and he remembered the time when he was 6 and she was 4).

He was the responsible big brother, and he had to comfort her. "Okay, come in."

She slowly walked in and plopped down on his bed. And then he realized that she wasn't 4 anymore. She had…. grown (into a beautiful, gorgeous, attractive woman that he could never have).

He cursed himself inwardly and decided to ignore his thoughts for the night. Slowly, he sank down beside her (and maybe that wasn't the smartest thing to do). But then Alex had to wrap her arms around his neck and hug him tightly (and he made a note to himself mentally: no more horror flicks).

"Are you scared, little girl?" Justin teased, trying to be the annoying big brother (and suppress the thoughts running through his mind- dirty sinful thoughts).

"Yes." Alex confessed. And then he realized that maybe she is still a little girl at heart after all (but then she wouldn't put prank love letters in his locker, would she?)

"Don't worry. I'm right here." He comforted.

"I know." Alex replied, and tried to place a tiny kiss on his cheek (but he had to turn at the right wrong moment and their lips brushed.)

And he thanked god that Alex didn't notice his heart rate speed up (or so he thought).

**And for the first time his life feel like those adrenaline-generating forbidden love fan fictions**. (And that still leaves him one hope: maybe he is stuck in a fantasy world, maybe this isn't real?)

****

**The first time they kissed was on her 15th birthday** (and it wasn't an accident).

He can totally blame Alex for it though. He had only woken her up at midnight to wish her a happy birthday (he was a loving and caring big brother, after all). She was the one who decided to seal the 'thank you' with a kiss. He tried to pull back, but Alex simply called him a 'dork' and kissed him again. (And this time he didn't fight it).

When they finally pulled apart, she smiled at him, and went back to sleep. But he had to hit the bathroom sink yet again (but maybe he can get used to it?)

How did she know in the first place? (Yeah, she was his sister, his best friend, and she knew him well). And why did she have to feel the same way? (Not that he'd _ever_ blame her for _that_).

*****

Breakfast next morning was in a word awkward, and **for the first time in his life, Justin felt uncomfortable while with his family** (that he would surely rip apart some day). But Alex kept talking about her plans for the birthday party, and thankfully his parents didn't notice.

The most awkward thing was the tension building between them- they didn't talk since the kiss. And Justin assumed she was mad at him (or maybe he was dreaming again?)

But then his parents ask him about his plans, he said he had homework, and Alex called him a 'geek' and a 'back-stabbing brother', but how grateful she would be if he didn't turn up in the party. (Okay, so some things will never change).

But he did show up, and (after all the body-switching spells and quinceniera rituals) he had the courage to gift her a red rose, and she had the courage to tell him he had 'no idea what his sister liked' and how 'stupid' his present was, but then, the real present was the drum (he bought with his entire year's pocket money) and she almost cried in happiness.

Okay, so maybe she did forget about the kiss, maybe everything was going back to normal.

And then he caught sight of the chocolate cake bit sticking to her lips, and he wasn't strong anymore. Alex noticed him staring and smirked (and he knew she had a plan). So when she kissed him that night in all her tongue glory, it didn't surprise him at all. What surprised him was that he pulled away. He told her how it was wrong, and she rolled her eyes and reminded him that she doesn't really care about right and wrong. And okay, so maybe this conversation was boring, and they'd have it again, and Alex would say the same thing, but that didn't mean Justin shouldn't try! He had to pull apart.

He loved his sister- a lot.

He couldn't do this.

He had to end this.

*****

After one week of awkward silence and ignoring each other, things went back to normal again. The fighting began again, and it always ended in heated arguments, slamming of doors and 'I hate you Justin' (But he knew otherwise).

A few months passed before things settled in, and then she started dating Dean (why didn't he see it coming?). Okay, so he wanted his sister to be happy, but that didn't mean it wouldn't hurt? Meeting Juliet helped heal wounds though. Suddenly they felt everything was going to be all right again- perhaps their insane phase was gone.

Alex smiled when she saw him. He smiled back.

****

He should have known peace wouldn't last in his life. The feelings returned as soon as they went searching through the rain forest for the stone of dreams, nearly escaping death a few times. And when her face looked totally vulnerable in that dim campfire light, he knew he would be sick again (and it didn't help that she felt the same way too).

Maybe they could change things for themselves with the stone of dreams, but saving their family was the right thing to do. They loved their family a lot.

**And for the first time in her life, Alex did the right thing without being told to do so**. And Justin (though a bit disappointed) was glad that his little sister was growing up.

*****

They returned. Dean moved. Juliet got trapped by a mummy. They were both lonely again.

But she started dating Mason. And he helped them find Juliet.

And then the epic fight- Juliet and mason were gone forever. They were alone yet again, heart shattered into a million pieces just like the broken necklace.

And perhaps, that was the beginning of 'them'. Now that he thinks about it, **maybe this is where their relationship began.**

"Promise me we'll find normal people."

"We are not normal people."

(A/N: okay, so this was originally a one-shot but **PrettyGirlRocks** gave me the idea to make it into a chapter fic, and I'm going to do it in the near future. So I added a few things to this chapter and made it the prologue. I just wanted to know what you guys think about this and whether you'd want me to make it a chapter fic. Let me know in a review, okay?)


	2. Chapter 1: Glow

(A/N: this is a new style of writing I'm trying, and yeah, I think it's working. So, **PrettyGirlRocks **gave me the idea to make it a chapter-fic, and here you go, chapter 1. PLEASE review and let me know if you want it to be a chapter-fic. And yeah, this is from Justin's point of view, it's mainly Justin-centric.)

**Chapter 1**

Normal: confirming with or constituting a norm or standard or level or type of social norm

******

"Promise me we'll find normal people."

"We are not normal people."

*****

There was the sound of the fan-blades moving, the clock tickling in the wall with girl wallpaper, the occasional sound of dogs barking, some weird guy playing flute at this abnormal hour of the day (night), and yeah, the sound of sobs. And _**that's when it all began**_.

Justin finally got up from the floor, glancing at _**the complicated trigonometry formulas hanging in his wall that made no sense to him for t**_**he first time in his life**,(but he just couldn't read them in the darkness, okay?) and then turned around to look at her eyes.

"I'm going to get some water." He said with such softness that his own ears seemed to be pleased, except, those very ears had heard a sad goodbye just five hours back, so yeah, maybe that wasn't so pleasant after all.

Alex only managed to nod, keeping her eyes fixed on the necklace in her left hand, caressing it lightly with her thumb, while her right hand pulled threads off his cotton bed-sheet in a totally unfocussed and random way, almost in an Alex-kind of way, except she wasn't ruining his bed-sheet on purpose, so yeah, it was more of a non-Alex thing.

"Do you want anything?" he asked tentatively, looking at the necklace in her hand that wasn't glowing anymore, and then at her eyes that were still glowing with tears, and yeah, those were probably not tears, just the full moon's reflection, (right?), but her cheeks were still wet with moisture and it wasn't so hot that she would sweat, so, yeah.

Alex just shook her head, letting the tears flow past her cheek, and a single drop fell on the shiny part of the necklace, reflecting the moon's light and making an inch of it glow, just an inch, but okay.

Justin sighed and turned around to head for the door, except, he got confused about direction (because of the darkness, okay?) and stumbled at his study desk, making his heavy science books fall on the floor with a loud thumping noise. He turned around to see his sister, still sitting motionless in his bed, still looking at the necklace in her hand, still pulling off threads from his bed-sheet, so yeah, maybe grief can make people deaf.

He didn't bother to pick up the books, because yeah, there's a fairly large possibility that he would stumble upon the same table again on his way back, and that would make his precious books fall again, which would be twice as bad. So yeah, _**for the first time in his life, he just let his books lie scattered on the cold floor.**_

He finally made it to the door, stumbling on his books just thrice in the process, and then he tried to reach for the doorknob, except he wasn't sure where that was anymore. He frantically moved his hands all around the hard wood thing in front of him, finally finding something that felt vaguely familiar to a thing called doorknob, and turned it on. He pushed the door open, except it just happened to flung open with a loud cracking sound (he has just been working out a lot, it wasn't because he was totally frustrated, okay?), and then he turned around to look at his sister, still sitting motionless in his bed, still looking at the necklace in her hand, still pulling off threads from his bed-sheet, so yeah, grief definitely makes people deaf.

And then for the first time he realized, it wasn't such a great idea to leave her all alone in that room, because okay, maybe she was still motionless, but if some emotion stirred in her heart, she might just happen to act on impulse and do something totally stupid, which would totally be fun in other times, but yeah, at the moment it could be something dangerous, and something totally different.

So he slowly walked back into his room, stumbling on his scattered books just twice this time, and maybe crashing on his study-desk again, making his table lamp fall and break into a thousand pieces of glass. And yeah, maybe walking barefoot was not such a great idea, especially when you look at the tiny piece of glass stuck in his feet and the blood poring out of it.

"Oh my gosh," she finally spoke, and for a moment he thought he was finally going completely insane, but then she spoke again, "What happened to your feet Justin?", so yeah, maybe he was still sane and breathing and alive and bleeding.

He looked up at her and saw that she had finally wiped her eyes, she had finally got up from the bed, and she had finally walked up to him, taking his hand and leading him back to the bed. And as he sat down on the bed, looking at the necklace lying by his side, and the wand lying by his other side_**, for the first time in his life, he didn't know how to treat his wound**_**. **(And yeah, we are not talking about his bleeding feet.)

There was a sharp pain in his entire leg as she gently pulled out the glass piece stuck in his foot, and gently cleaned the wound with something, something that was probably not disinfected and probably contained a lot of germs, but yeah, dang it. And then he saw her throw away a piece of cotton soaked in blood, so yeah, maybe he wouldn't die from tetanus, and yeah, maybe her brain was still working, despite of the grief.

There was the sensation of a bandage being wrapped around his foot, as the image of unwrapping a mummy played in his head again and again and again and again, and okay, "Stop!"

"W-w-what?" she quirked an eyebrow, looking up at him, and okay, maybe she thought he was yelling at her.

"Nothing, it's just…." He groaned because suddenly his large vocabulary and the words he learnt by reading the thousand books, and the words he had mugged up from the dictionary during a Sunday evening, suddenly seemed to abandon him. "I'm sorry." He whispered, finding it impossible to find any other word.

She nodded and returned to her work, finishing it in what, around two minutes? (Okay, who'd be counting seconds in such a moment?) And then she sat back in the bed beside him, picking up the necklace with her left hand, gently caressing it with her thumb, while her right hand pulled off threads from his bed-sheet, so, okay.

He sighed and got up, finally finding it impossible to walk with a bandage around his aching leg, and yeah, so maybe he stumbled on his book again, but hey, he didn't fall, okay? Not until he tripped on his study chair and went crashing onto the floor.

"Justin!" she yelled, getting up again, walking up to him, and okay, so maybe she was strong for a girl, because geez, how else could she support his hand on her shoulder and help him back to the bed?

"Stay here." She whispered, picking up the necklace in her left hand again, caressing it gently with her thumb, while her right hand- okay, that's enough.

"Alex, stop it!" he whispered, except his voice just got a pitch higher and it may or may not have sounded like yelling.

"What?" she asked, looking at him, and okay, so now she wants to play the innocent game? Fine.

He reached for the necklace, snatching it away from her hand, and okay, maybe that wasn't so easy, maybe she was fighting back, not letting it go.

"Give me that!" he yelled, trying to take it out of her hands, and he wondered why his parents still didn't wake up and come rushing to him, but yeah, they probably thought it'd be best to leave them alone.

"No!" she yelled back, still struggling with the necklace, trying to securely place it around her neck.

And okay, so maybe all the searching and finding and fighting and losing and sitting in a dark room and crying for hours had gotten into his head and taken control of his body, but somehow Alex was able to hold his wrist firmly and maybe force his hands to place the necklace around her neck.

_**And maybe, just maybe, it happened to glow. **_

(A/N: okay, so now you know how this story will go. I personally liked how this chapter shaped up. Please let me know if you want this to be a full story, and then I can start working on it when I finish writing the adoption fan fic. I've already finished writing the 'soul mates chapters' and the angsty story, BTW)


	3. Chapter 2: Let's give it a try

(A/N: thank you for the wonderful response. **This is going to be a chapter story**. And yes, **I have finally found a plot. **Since I'm proof-reading the next chapter of Dollhouse now, I thought I should update this. **Important: Since this is from Justin's POV, I have used a LOT of scientific terms. If you don't understand them, just scroll to the end of the chapter, I've given the meaning there**.)

Chapter 2

Glow: to shine brightly and steadily, especially without a flame

/////

It was some malfunction of magic, or some after effect of some stupid spell, or some curse of some stupid creature, or maybe some side effects induced by some potion, okay? There's no other logical, scientific, technical explanation for the glowing necklace in front of him.

And maybe she was still weighed down by grief, maybe she didn't notice, maybe there's a statistically great possibility that she won't see the necklace glowing in her hands.

"It's glowing", her voice was a faint whisper, but he heard it all right, and okay, so maybe she did notice.

His forehead and arms suddenly began to sweat. (He wasn't scared, okay? It was just too hot.) There was the sound of the fan-blades moving, the clock tickling in the wall with girl wallpaper, the occasional sound of dogs barking, some weird guy playing flute at this abnormal hour of the day (night), but yeah, the sound of sobs had stopped.

"Justin…" she whispered again, and he was unable to figure out the emotion convened by her voice. "It's glowing…"

The list of statistical, rational, logical explanations that he could provide to her was being prepared in his head, and he was trying to group them into sets, but maybe, just maybe, they all turned out to be null sets. And then the panic button on his brain was turned on, and the only rational option that he could think of was to run away from the room, from the house, from the city, from the country, so okay, maybe that wasn't such a rational option after all.

"You still love me…" she whispered, and his brain was definitely undergoing a malfunction, because he could not decipher whether it was a question or a statement.

"You're my sister…." he finally found his voice, and okay, so maybe that wasn't an explanation, but it's the first thing that came to his mind, okay?

He looked up at her. She was looking at the glowing necklace around her neck, placed there by her brother, gently holding it and tilting it near her face with her left hand, and caressing it with the thumb of her right hand. And okay, so maybe this was bad.

"I don't know…." She whispered, finally looking back at him.

His brain enlisted the possible things that she didn't know about, like what the Edgebono Utosis spell was used for, or what was Newton's third law of motion, or who led the liberation movement in Indonesia, but okay, maybe not.

"What?" he finally risked asking her. And then there was the sound of footsteps towards him, and he wondered if his Organ of Corti was playing tricks on him, but then she was standing right in front of him, and okay, so maybe his rhodopsin and iodopsin pigments were not working.

"I don't know if I still love you…" she blurted out in a totally terrified tone, and okay, on second thoughts, maybe his Organ of Corti was showing malfunction.

His hands were shaking, and he blamed the afferent and efferent nerves running through his body and all the pseudo-unipolar neurons. He was sweating more profusely, his heart beat had increased, and his breathing was deeper, so okay, welcome to work adrenalin.

The next thing he knew was that the necklace was being placed around his neck, and he held his breath, analyzing the statistical possibility of it not glowing.

The statistical result was simple: zero.

And it glowed.

There was the sound of the fan-blades moving, the clock tickling in the wall with girl wallpaper, the occasional sound of dogs barking, some weird guy playing flute at this abnormal hour of the day (night) and yeah, the sound of her as sank down onto the floor and began to cry.

"Alex…" he whispered, trying hard to make his sound normal, and succeeding, except maybe it quavered a little, just a little, and maybe a lump was rising in his throat.

He carefully began to process his next words, searching for all the alphabets he would need. But she beat him to it. "Let's give it a try." 

And his brain again enlisted all the possible things that 'it' can refer to, like pizza with pineapple topping, Max's marshmallow surprise, getting a permanent tattoo, trying a forbidden spell, so okay, maybe not.

"Let's give us a try." She stated more clearly this time, looking up at him with those hopeful, pleading, desperate, frantic, needy eyes.

"You're my sister…" he repeated in a much clearer tone, except maybe it sounded a bit pained. And okay, so maybe he should close the window, because the wind was making his hair messier. (Not because the full moon's light was creating a romantic atmosphere and making him vulnerable, okay?)

There was the sound of the fan-blades moving, the clock tickling in the wall with girl wallpaper, the occasional sound of dogs barking, some weird guy playing flute at this abnormal hour of the day (night), and then the world blurred out as she got up and ran into his arms.

His cerebellum (or was it cerebrum?) lost control of his body, as his hands snaked themselves around her waist, and for one moment he stopped thinking, just breathing in the scent of her hair.

And then his vocabulary and the words he had learnt from the thousand books he read, and the words he had mugged up from the dictionary one Sunday evening, suddenly rushed back to him, and his mind was flooded by words like 'sick', 'disgusting', 'wrong', 'taboo', and then there were two more words- 'dang it.'

His lips crashed on hers and they looked at each other's eyes. _**And for the first time in his life, Justin Russo stopped caring about right and wrong, and good and bad, and okay, everything else that mattered. **_

"It'll end bad." He warned.

"How bad?" she had the nerve to ask.

"It's not practical." He whispered, trying to keep the tone of defeat away from his voice, and failing miserably, so okay, that wasn't her answer.

"How bad?" she asked again.

His brain instantly prepared a directory of things that could go wrong, but he decided to settle for the worst.

"We can die." He stated bluntly.

A chuckle escaped from her mouth. "Are we alive now?"

He considered her question for 99.5 microseconds, because if they were standing in the darkness in his room, holding each other in their arms, with a glowing necklace around his neck, maybe they were dreaming, maybe this was an alternate reality, maybe they were trapped in a parallel dimension that he had been reading about, and maybe they were already past death.

But there was the feeling of her heart beating at a rapid pace against his chest, and the feeling of her hot breath tickling his neck, so okay, maybe they were still alive.

"Okay." He finally gave in. "Let's give this a try."

She looked up at him with tear-stained eyes, and his brain enlisted all the features that their faces had in common, all the common genes they shared.

And he just happened to reach out to her and grab her shoulders harshly, shaking her ruthlessly to try to invoke some sense into her. "Are you sure?" he whispered as he finally released her.

"Yes", she whispered as she choked on her tears. "_**Let the crime begin**_." 

And then there was the sound of the fan-blades moving, the clock tickling in the wall with girl wallpaper, the occasional sound of dogs barking, some weird guy playing flute at this abnormal hour of the day (night), and yeah, the sound of sobs, as she sat back on his bed.

He sighed, yanking the necklace off his neck and placing it gently on the table, still finding it impossible to walk with the wounded leg, and finally staggered back to his bed, sitting down beside her.

"So…." He whispered wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

"So?" she whispered back.

"You think she'll be all right?" he asked, and his lachrymal gland finally began to work.

She shook her head. "I don't know…" 

"He'd be fine." He whispered, visualizing wolves howling in a bloodcurdling forest.

She nodded. "We'll be fine too."

There was hope and confidence and resolution in her voice, and okay, so maybe he believed her.

They'd be fine, as long as they had each other, but that time seemed to be becoming short.

The hourglass was ticking. Their world was falling apart.

_**Their doom was beginning.**_

(Okay, here are the scientific terms, in case you didn't understand something:  
1. organ of corti: responsible for hearing, present in ear

2. Rhodopsin, iodopsin: pigments present in eye, responsible for vision

3. Adrenalin: a hormone

4. Cerebellum, cerebrum: parts of brain

5. Afferent and efferent nerves: two types of nerves

6. Pseudo-unipolar neuron: a type of neuron

7. Lachrymal gland: tear gland, secrets tears

8. Set: a collection of well-defined objects

9. Null set: an empty set, containing no element

See, being a nerd helps writing fan fictions LOL)

(A/N: please review, pretty please! :-s I'm currently working on this fic, so reviews will inspire me. So far, it's becoming too dark. I think I'll have to change the rating to M in later chapters because of the darkness of this fic.)


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